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Thursday, November 17, 2011

When I was a student, I used to miss any class if I felt sleepy. It
just seemed wrong to sit in the class and not pay attention. Things have
changed with age, and perhaps with time. Now, I can peacefully sleep
during seminars without feeling too guilty. And I have no problems with
my students sleeping in my lecture, as long as they don't get upset with
my lecture disturbing their sleep, and they don't snore and disturb
others. Peaceful coexistence, as they say.

About a
month ago, in one of my lectures, I noticed that a student was sleeping
in the last row of L-7. (For the benefit of readers not familiar with
IITK lingo, L-7 is lecture hall number 7, which is the largest lecture
hall on campus with a capacity of more than 500.) When I say sleeping, I
don't mean sitting with eyes closed and not paying attention. He was as
flat as you can be on a chair with legs resting on the next seat. He
had a handkerchief on his face so that the lights don't bother him. And,
I am sure, though I did not check, he had ear plugs to make sure that
my lecture does not disturb him. His body did not seem to be moving at
all.

I became acutely aware of what W H Auden (an American
Poet) had said about half a century ago, "A Professor is one who talks
in someone else's sleep," and I tried to be soft, and I tried to ignore
him. Sometimes there will be two students sleeping. I was curious, as to
who they were, were they registered in my course, were they sleeping
through the previous lecture as well, and why can't they sleep in their
hostel rooms.

The funny thing happened two days ago. I decided to take a
surprise quiz in the lecture. A kind soul went to the last row to wake
up the sleeping student, gave him the paper. The student took a few
seconds to look at the question, returned the paper, and went back to
sleep. How important can a few marks be when you are day dreaming about
your career, or your favourite heroine, for that matter.

Today was the last lecture of my course, and my last chance to
find out. So I asked some students in the course if they knew who they
were. Yes, of course, they were registered students in my course, and
very hard working ones at that. They worked whole night, every night.
Doing what? I don't know but I can only guess that playing computer
games and watching movies on a small screen is a lot of hard work. And
human body can only take so much. So one has to sleep some times. No
user manual of life has said that one can only sleep in the night. And
they were born in a free country, where they can enjoy a whole lot of
freedoms, including freedom to sleep at will.

But students told me that the Warden of one hostel whose resident
this student was, considered himself above the Indian constitution. He
got the Hall Executive Committee to approve a rule which stated that
students cannot be in their rooms when their classes are on. No respect
for individual freedom. I guess this warden thinks that these students
have come to IIT for studying. He himself should wake up and smell some coffee.

So sleeping in the room during the late morning hours entails a cost (fine) of Rs. 50. Sleeping in the lecture hall is free.
And in the last row, disturbance is arguably less than what it would be
in the wing. In fact, the C syntax that I was teaching must be acting
as a lullaby for him. (Though I wonder whether the Physics lecture before my lecture was also sleep inducing? They apparently had slept through that too.) To add to their comfort, the lecture halls are air-conditioned. What
more can one ask for. It is such an attractive proposition that I am
sure the student would have gladly paid Rs. 50, if we insisted on that
to let him sleep during the lecture. It is definitely better sleeping in a lecture hall than in the hostel.

But in my opinion,
some things in the world must be be tax-free. Free Sleep is one of
those things I feel strongly about. I am sure when the constitution was
being drafted, the members were asleep. That is why they gave us free
speech, when they really wanted to give us free sleep.

Oh! The joys of teaching a 500+ students' class.

Added on 18th November: Here are the links to previous posts on my experiences in teaching 500+ students: